Thursday, January 12, 2012

MAKING YOUR OWN SOUP CRACKERS

I have a St. Valentine's Tea Party Luncheon every year. Last year I served a homemade Curried Tomato Soup with homemade heart-shaped crackers. The red looked very festive in keeping with a red Valentine's theme. I sprinkled grated Parmesean cheese on top, then dolloped on a tiny bit of sour cream. Made for a nice easy soup to serve.

This is my tutorial on how I made the crisps - and it is so easy you will most likely now want to do it anytime you are having guests and serving soup. It is fun to cut your crackers into all sorts of shapes to keep with you specific party theme. Just remember to keep your shapes simple - they can't be too intricate (I tried snowflakes once, it was a crumbling disaster.) But hearts, bells, shamrocks, diamonds, round, square, daisy, teacup/teapot have all worked nicely for me in the past.

Sprinkle flour on your work surface in preparing to work with the dough. (I had the granite people cut me a big old heavy extra piece for working with dough..............it stay cools and keeps the dough from getting too warm and sticky! Lubs me that!)

Take one of the two pie crusts out of its plastic sleeve. Put away the other roll for later- you will only need to use one. Roll dough gently flat but not too thin at first. You now need to sprinkle Mrs. Dash all around. (I use Mrs. D because it adds lots of flavor without adding salt - but does have a tiny kick to it if too much is used.) Now pinch a tiny bit of garlic salt sparingly all around evenly as well. It is now time to roll the dough SUPER thin. This kinda flattens/mushes the spices and herbs down into the dough. Remember these are to be crackers, not crusts or cookies - you want them to be extra thin and crispy!

Cut into desired shapes. I used a medium size heart cutter, because this was for Valentine's Day. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Note: since this pic was taken I now only use parchment paper when baking these - makes for a much crisper cracker, less calories and makes quicker time of cleanup.) If you choose parchment paper you won't have to prepare your sheets with any kind of oil.

Brush your shapes lightly with melted butter so they crisp up nicely when baking. Then bake for approx 6-8 minutes at 350. Adjust time and temp as needed, everyone's oven is different - this is just a guildline. Watch well the first time you make. Maybe bake just one or two as testers first. You want them crispy golden brown. You can see a few from the pic below that several of these got TOO over baked. (Those I didn't serve. I ate 'em, I'm not proud, haha.)

Stored in airtight containers they keep nicely for up to 3 days.

There you have it - make yourself some easy themed crackers for all those awesome soups you create!